Disney Names Josh D’Amaro CEO, Dana Walden Takes on President and Chief Creative Officer Role

The Walt Disney Company has officially locked in its next era of leadership. After years of speculation, internal evaluations, and a carefully managed succession plan, Disney has tapped Josh D’Amaro as its next CEO, with Dana Walden stepping into a newly created role as President and Chief Creative Officer.

The changes mark the end of Bob Iger’s long and winding run at the top and set the stage for what Disney hopes is a steadier, future-facing chapter.

The company’s board of directors voted unanimously on the appointments, which will take effect at Disney’s annual shareholders meeting on March 18. D’Amaro will also be added to the board at that time. Iger will formally hand over the CEO title at the meeting but will remain involved as a senior advisor through the end of his contract on December 31.

Iger endorsed his successor saying: “Josh D’Amaro is an exceptional leader and the right person to become our next CEO. He has an instinctive appreciation of the Disney brand, and a deep understanding of what resonates with our audiences, paired with the rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects. His ability to combine creativity with operational excellence is exemplary and I am thrilled for Josh and the company.”

Alongside D’Amaro’s promotion, Walden’s new role places creativity front and center in Disney’s corporate structure. She’ll report directly to D’Amaro and oversee storytelling and creative alignment across the entire company, though Disney hasn’t broken down the role’s day-to-day responsibilities in detail.

The press release described her mission as ensuring that creative expression across all audience touchpoints reflects the brand, connects at scale, and supports core business goals.

Iger also made it clear why Walden was the right choice. “Dana is an excellent leader who commands tremendous respect from the creative community,” he said. “Given that creativity is at the heart of everything Disney does, she is a wonderful choice to serve in this new leadership role.”

Disney chairman James Gorman, who spearheaded the succession process after taking over the board last year, echoed that confidence in D’Amaro, saying he “possesses that rare combination of inspiring leadership and innovation, a keen eye for strategic growth opportunities, and a deep passion for the Disney brand and its people – all of which make him the right person to take the helm as Disney’s next CEO.”

At 54, D’Amaro becomes just the eighth CEO in Disney’s history since the company’s founding in 1923. He’s also very much a homegrown choice. A 28-year Disney veteran, D’Amaro joined the company in 1998 and has worked across finance, strategy, marketing, creative development, and operations in both domestic and international roles.

He rose to prominence as head of Disney’s Experiences division in 2020, guiding parks, resorts, cruise lines, games, and apps through the chaos of COVID shutdowns and into a period of renewed growth.

Before that, he served as CFO of Disney Consumer Products Global Licensing and as president of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. A Boston native, D’Amaro is a Georgetown graduate and has long been seen as a steady hand inside the company.

He was one of four internal CEO candidates, alongside Walden, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, and Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman. Pitaro and Bergman will remain in their current roles.

Disney briefly explored the idea of naming D’Amaro and Walden as co-CEOs, a structure that’s gained traction at companies like Netflix, Comcast, and Spotify. In the end, the board opted for a more traditional setup, pairing a single CEO with a powerful creative counterpart.

Walden’s resume makes it easy to see why Disney wanted her locked into a central creative role. She joined Disney in 2019 following the acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox, where she previously served as CEO of Fox Television Group.

After Disney’s 2023 restructuring, she and Bergman were named co-heads of the entertainment unit, with Walden overseeing ABC, Disney Television Studios, FX, direct-to-consumer operations, technology, ad sales, and international content.

Under her leadership, ABC has been the No. 1 entertainment network for four consecutive years. She’s been instrumental in shepherding hit series like Abbott Elementary and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.

Walden is also known for her strong relationships with talent, something that earned her a public shout-out from Jimmy Kimmel last fall after Jimmy Kimmel Live! was temporarily pulled off the air following controversy tied to one of his monologues.

The leadership transition closes a long and sometimes messy chapter in Disney’s executive history. Iger’s first stint as CEO began in 2006 and included landmark acquisitions of Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, and most of 21st Century Fox.

He stepped down in 2020, handing the reins to Bob Chapek, a move that quickly unraveled amid internal friction, public missteps, and Iger’s continued presence as executive chairman. Chapek was ousted in 2022, prompting Iger’s return and a renewed push to finally get succession right.

Since coming back, Iger has overseen significant cost cutting, layoffs affecting roughly 7,000 employees, and a proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz, all while trying to stabilize Disney’s streaming business and recalibrate its broader strategy.

Those efforts resulted in $7.5 billion in cost savings and a streaming operation that has finally turned profitable, though long-term margins across the industry remain uncertain.

D’Amaro now inherits a company facing no shortage of challenges. Linear TV continues to decline, sports rights are becoming increasingly expensive, and streaming remains a moving target. At the same time, Disney’s Experiences division has become a reliable growth engine.

The company plans to invest $60 billion into the segment over the next decade, including a major new theme park project in Abu Dhabi. Experiences revenue grew 6% in fiscal 2025 to $36.2 billion, while entertainment revenue climbed 3% to $42.5 billion.

Artificial intelligence is also looming large. Disney has already made waves by investing in OpenAI and licensing select characters for the Sora video platform, even as tensions between AI companies and Hollywood guilds continue to build ahead of upcoming labor negotiations.

As Iger himself put it during Disney’s latest earnings call, the CEO job isn’t getting any simpler. “The good news is that the company is in much better shape today than it was three years ago,” he said.

“We have done a lot of fixing but also put in place a number of opportunities. In a world that changes as much as it does, in some form or another trying to preserve the status quo is a mistake and I’m certain my successor will not do that.”

With D’Amaro and Walden stepping into their new roles, Disney is betting that deep institutional knowledge, creative focus, and operational discipline are exactly what the company needs next. Whether that gamble pays off will define the Mouse House for years to come.